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As promised, the intrepid iPhone Dev Team released its iPhone 3G unlocking utility, yellowsn0w, on the first of this year.

Unfortunately, it's not a fully blessed 1.0 release, but instead beta version 0.9.4, and reports are emerging that it's performing like ... well ... a beta.

On Yellowsn0w.net, for example, posters report experiences ranging from "I got mine working" to "Still no luck." Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo reports success - well, "It has worked for me after some fiddling," to be exact - but reports from commenters to his article range from "It worked right away" to "for me suddenly it did stop working."

If you'd like to take a crack at cracking your iPhone with this beta, be advised that the version 0.9.4 works only with baseband 02.28.00. Fortunately, that's the version provided by iPhone 2.2 Software Update, Apple's most recent. Before you start messing with yellowsn0w, make sure to use iTunes to upgrade your iPhone to 2.2.

If you're familiar with using QuickPwn to perform a basic jailbreak, then Cydia or Installer to load apps, you're good to go.

If you need help, the iPhone Dev Team provides some basic hand-holding, and a poster named "hema" at GSM-Forum offers some detailed and helpful - if at times somewhat opaque - tips.

The app doesn't seem worrisome, however. The iPhone Dev Team reassuringly describes yellowsn0w as "a small daemon that is launched on boot. It injects the payload at boot and also whenever there is a baseband reset. You won’t notice anything about it other than that your third-party sim now works."

The Team also promises that "yellowsn0w is completely removable through Cydia, the command line, and iTunes." That should calm experimenters a bit.

Let us know your experiences with beta 0.9.4. And feel free to call us cowards, but we'll wait for version 1.0. ®